Automation Transformation: Leveraging Digital Labor in the AI Era

Different eras of technology bring massive shifts to the workforce. The industrial revolution shifted workers from farms to factories. In the first era of automation, machines relieved humans of exhausting manual work. Today, Era Two of automation continues to wash across the services-based economy, affecting jobs in industries ranging from agriculture to manufacturing.

Now Era Three, with the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), is dawning.

Smart computers are demonstrating they are capable of making better decisions than humans can. Brilliant technologies can decide, learn, predict, and even comprehend much more quickly and accurately than the human brain, and their progress is accelerating.

So where will this leave companies and workers? How should executives think about a new era of “digital labor”?

In this Harvard Business Review webinar, Julia Kirby, coauthor of Only Humans Need Apply, reframes the conversation about AI, arguing that the future of increased productivity and business success isn’t either human or machine. It’s both.

The key is augmentation, utilizing technology to help humans work better, smarter, and faster. Instead of viewing these machines as competitive interlopers, we can see them as partners and collaborators in creative problem solving. The choice is ours.